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The Top 5 Things China and Africa Buy/Sell from One Another

by Eric Olander

In an article that recently appeared in the Paris-based magazine The Africa Report, Andrew McGregor, Managing Director of the independent research organization Who Owns Whom, and Marthinus Havenga, Director of Cathkin Consulting, provided some interesting data on the top five export and import categories that dominate the bulk of China-Africa trade.

In short, China sells heavy equipment and other machinery to African countries and in turn, buys a lot of natural resources. While that’s not a tremendous surprise, it is interesting to note the volumes and how they’ve changed between 2001 and 2018.

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